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View Full Version : Duke Colors and Other Miami Game Musings



Rich
02-11-2009, 09:45 AM
After 20 years (I graduated in 1988), I finally got back to Cameron last week to see the Miami game. It definitely lived up to my memories and expectations. The crowd was as boisterous as I remember and a buddy of mine, who I invited but didn't go to Duke, was totally impressed by the crowd, how loud it got, and, most significantly, how the crowd kept cheering and pushing the team even when we were down by 16 in the second half. I was proud and he was so happy to be a part of it he bought a CAMERON CRAZIE t-shirt after the game.

While walking the campus before the game, he also couldn't believe how many people wore Duke hats, t-shirts, sweatshirts and other apparel. He joked, "Do you have a uniform code here?" I remember from my days as an undergrad how students wore their Duke garb proudly and was happy to see that was still the case. Maybe it's like that at other schools, but I don't think to the same extent.

Now to my question which, to some degree, is supported by the photo on the DBR website today. In the 1980's I seem to recall that the primary color for apparel and other merchandise was in the navy family. The photo on the website shows a uniform in Duke blue that is darker than what the players where today. I recall the color of the uniforms being not quite navy in the 80's, but definitely darker than the royal blue color it is today. Looking at the shirts worn by the students, as well as a trip to the school store, the school's color now seems to be more of a royal blue. I never really noticed this from watching on tv, but it was quite apparent when I was there in person.

Was the school's color always royal blue, but the store just sold more navy because it was more popular at the time? Or was the school's color a darker blue than the royal it is today and migrated to royal blue? Was this a gradual shift? And what about the uniforms? Was there a particular year when the color became lighter or was that a gradual migration?

I would be interested if anyone has any thoughts or insights about this.

Devil in the Blue Dress
02-11-2009, 10:02 AM
After 20 years (I graduated in 1988), I finally got back to Cameron last week to see the Miami game. It definitely lived up to my memories and expectations. The crowd was as boisterous as I remember and a buddy of mine, who I invited but didn't go to Duke, was totally impressed by the crowd, how loud it got, and, most significantly, how the crowd kept cheering and pushing the team even when we were down by 16 in the second half. I was proud and he was so happy to be a part of it he bought a CAMERON CRAZIE t-shirt after the game.

While walking the campus before the game, he also couldn't believe how many people wore Duke hats, t-shirts, sweatshirts and other apparel. He joked, "Do you have a uniform code here?" I remember from my days as an undergrad how students wore their Duke garb proudly and was happy to see that was still the case. Maybe it's like that at other schools, but I don't think to the same extent.

Now to my question which, to some degree, is supported by the photo on the DBR website today. In the 1980's I seem to recall that the primary color for apparel and other merchandise was in the navy family. The photo on the website shows a uniform in Duke blue that is darker than what the players where today. I recall the color of the uniforms being not quite navy in the 80's, but definitely darker than the royal blue color it is today. Looking at the shirts worn by the students, as well as a trip to the school store, the school's color now seems to be more of a royal blue. I never really noticed this from watching on tv, but it was quite apparent when I was there in person.

Was the school's color always royal blue, but the store just sold more navy because it was more popular at the time? Or was the school's color a darker blue than the royal it is today and migrated to royal blue? Was this a gradual shift? And what about the uniforms? Was there a particular year when the color became lighter or was that a gradual migration?

I would be interested if anyone has any thoughts or insights about this.

In the early sixties the blue was more of a navy. (Check out the cheerleader uniforms, for example.) Over the years it has become more of a royal blue, sometimes varying with the type of material used. The Trustees did select Prussian blue in the late sixties I think, but the shade of blue has continued to evolve. The range of shades of royal blue certainly looks better on TV and in color photos than navy.

InaudibleWords
02-11-2009, 10:28 AM
Looking at the shirts worn by the students, as well as a trip to the school store, the school's color now seems to be more of a royal blue.

My boyfriend and I (both young alums) were also at the Miami game and actually had a mini-debate about this with our other Duke friend. We were at the fencing match on Saturday watching our proud Saber Olympian Becca Ward (sidenote: she is INCREDIBLE to watch!! If you ever get the chance, definitely see her in action!) when we noticed that the Duke team's shoes seem to be an awfully light shade of blue. Now, it was certainly not Carolina blue, but more of an electric blue... slightly lighter than the royal blue that they are selling on all the shirts. This launched a debate of "what is Duke Blue?" and led to much t-shirt color comparing, since most people were wearing a Duke shirt of some sort.

According to the younger crowd (ie: my generation), navy is most definitely not. My vote was that the dark blue, like on the top of the ad banner for this site, was true Duke Blue, but the boy stated that it was the royal blue like on the Cameron Crazie t-shirts. When compared to the comments here leads me to believe that the color morphed over the years. Perhaps due to customer popularity or even how the color looks on TV? Clearly I don't have an official answer (nice touch with the Prussian Blue ref above, DITBD) but wanted to weigh in my thoughts and say that Duke Blue seems to be a bit of an interpretation.

BlueDevilBaby
02-11-2009, 10:40 AM
My mother attended Duke in the 60s. Everything she has is navy and white. Seems to me Navy is the official Duke blue. What they do for team uniforms can, obviously, be quite different. FWIW, dark blue is my favorite color, but I like the royal blue uniforms - they pop on tv.

Bluedog
02-11-2009, 10:43 AM
Here's an article about the color:

http://library.duke.edu/uarchives/faqs/duke_blue.html

In the late 1880s, the student body chose dark blue as the color. Then Prussian blue was adopted on September 23, 1965 by the Board of Trustees. Duke Blue is officially registered as Pantone 287:

http://www.logo-design99.com/b-287.jpg

However, for merchandise, anything in the range of Pantone 283 to 289 is acceptable. Pantone 283 is waaay too close for Caroline blue for my liking.

http://www.uci.edu/graphic_identity/images/blue-color-box_rgb.gif 289

http://www.sharperbrand.com/support/pantone_colors

Edit: Art Heyman!!! That seems a good person to be for the rest of the day...I don't think I'm posting anymore until AFTER the game!

Lid
02-11-2009, 10:44 AM
In the early 90's I'm fairly sure Duke blue was actually gray or white.

InaudibleWords
02-11-2009, 10:45 AM
In the late 1880s, the student body chose dark blue as the color. Then Prussian blue was adopted on September 23, 1965 by the Board of Trustees. Duke Blue is officially registered as Pantone 287:

However, for merchandise, anything in the range of Pantone 283 to 289 is acceptable. Pantone 283 is waaay too close for Caroline blue for my liking.

damn... beat me to it! I spent about 15 minutes drafting the post because I was trying to find all the right Pantone colors, haha. Stupid spotty internet...

Lavabe
02-11-2009, 11:40 AM
Here's an article about the color:

http://library.duke.edu/uarchives/faqs/duke_blue.html

In the late 1880s, the student body chose dark blue as the color. Then Prussian blue was adopted on September 23, 1965 by the Board of Trustees. Duke Blue is officially registered as Pantone 287:

http://www.logo-design99.com/b-287.jpg

However, for merchandise, anything in the range of Pantone 283 to 289 is acceptable. Pantone 283 is waaay too close for Caroline blue for my liking.

http://www.uci.edu/graphic_identity/images/blue-color-box_rgb.gif 289

http://www.sharperbrand.com/support/pantone_colors


Umm, we live in Lexington, KY where Kentucky Blue looks an awful lot like Duke Blue. Turns out that UK's official blue is Pantone 286.

Essentially, Duke & UK colors are the same.:eek:

This is something I cannot accept. It's 287, or nothing at all.:)

JStuart
02-11-2009, 11:44 AM
So what Pantone were the UNC coaches wearing, and what shade of dark blue did their team wear on one of the away games they played? Sure looks like Duke Blue to me...and I'm an ophthalmologist!

Devil in the Blue Dress
02-11-2009, 11:47 AM
Umm, we live in Lexington, KY where Kentucky Blue looks an awful lot like Duke Blue. Turns out that UK's official blue is Pantone 286.

Essentially, Duke & UK colors are the same.:eek:

This is something I cannot accept. It's 287, or nothing at all.:)
Interesting observation, Lavabe. A Kentucky "gentleman" told me that the folk there call our color "puke" blue. Thus ended that relationship.

InaudibleWords
02-11-2009, 11:59 AM
So what Pantone were the UNC coaches wearing, and what shade of dark blue did their team wear on one of the away games they played? Sure looks like Duke Blue to me...and I'm an ophthalmologist!

Hmmmm, don't seem to know what uniforms you're talking about. (Forgive me for not watching all the UNC games - unless they're against Duke or in the ACC/NCAA tournies.) Do you have a picture? I did a quick search and wasn't able to figure out what you meant... Sounds like a funny image!

grossbus
02-11-2009, 12:11 PM
i graduated in '65. i don't need a pantone chart to know what Duke blue is. i just look at my letter sweater. royal blue, it ain't.

JStuart
02-11-2009, 12:18 PM
This is an example; I can't tolerate scrolling thru UNC photos any more, today. Sorry!
http://store.cstv.com/marketplace/store_contents.cfm?cart_id=12102827084971147210110 11435220091102&store_id=58&dept_id=549&product_id=130079

InaudibleWords
02-11-2009, 12:36 PM
This is an example; I can't tolerate scrolling thru UNC photos any more, today. Sorry!
http://store.cstv.com/marketplace/store_contents.cfm?cart_id=12102827084971147210110 11435220091102&store_id=58&dept_id=549&product_id=130079

I feel your pain! I clicked on a couple links to UNC sports sites to see the uniforms you talked about and just couldn't stomach it for long. Thanks for the sacrifice to let me know what you were talking about!

This discussion reminds me... anyone see The Office episode when Dwight wore Cornell gear and Andy got all flustered and upset?? http://officequotes.net/no5-05.php

Dwight: Cornell is a good school, and I want to better myself through higher education. If it makes Andy angry, so be it. [He sips from his Cornell mug]

hehe :D

Devil in the Blue Dress
02-11-2009, 12:44 PM
So what Pantone were the UNC coaches wearing, and what shade of dark blue did their team wear on one of the away games they played? Sure looks like Duke Blue to me...and I'm an ophthalmologist!

There is no higher praise than to imitate or copy somebody's else school colors..... even if they don't know what they're doing!

Rich
02-11-2009, 12:48 PM
Here's an article about the color:

http://library.duke.edu/uarchives/faqs/duke_blue.html

In the late 1880s, the student body chose dark blue as the color. Then Prussian blue was adopted on September 23, 1965 by the Board of Trustees. Duke Blue is officially registered as Pantone 287:

http://www.logo-design99.com/b-287.jpg

However, for merchandise, anything in the range of Pantone 283 to 289 is acceptable. Pantone 283 is waaay too close for Caroline blue for my liking.

http://www.uci.edu/graphic_identity/images/blue-color-box_rgb.gif 289

http://www.sharperbrand.com/support/pantone_colors

Edit: Art Heyman!!! That seems a good person to be for the rest of the day...I don't think I'm posting anymore until AFTER the game!

According to the Library Archives article, the Pantone® Process Color Imaging Guide formula for Duke Blue is 100% Cyan + 69% Magenta + 0% Yellow + 11.5% Black. If that's the case, why do they even mention yellow?

jv001
02-11-2009, 01:16 PM
According to the Library Archives article, the Pantone® Process Color Imaging Guide formula for Duke Blue is 100% Cyan + 69% Magenta + 0% Yellow + 11.5% Black. If that's the case, why do they even mention yellow?

Good question Rich, that would be a good question to ask george karl or hanstravel. Go Duke!

jjasper0729
02-11-2009, 01:31 PM
More than likely it's because the formula is for CMYK so you would include them all, even if one was a value of 0. Remember, "0" is NOT NULL.

DukeFencer
02-11-2009, 01:44 PM
My boyfriend and I (both young alums) were also at the Miami game and actually had a mini-debate about this with our other Duke friend. We were at the fencing match on Saturday watching our proud Saber Olympian Becca Ward (sidenote: she is INCREDIBLE to watch!! If you ever get the chance, definitely see her in action!) when we noticed that the Duke team's shoes seem to be an awfully light shade of blue. Now, it was certainly not Carolina blue, but more of an electric blue... slightly lighter than the royal blue that they are selling on all the shirts. This launched a debate of "what is Duke Blue?" and led to much t-shirt color comparing, since most people were wearing a Duke shirt of some sort.

Inaudible, would you say the shoes were the color of the font that a lot of us use for Duke Blue??? (see Rich's signature)

Sidenote: Both the men & women's fencing teams beat UNC this weekend to give Duke another point in the Carlyle Cup!

KBCrazie
02-11-2009, 01:47 PM
I remember from my days as an undergrad how students wore their Duke garb proudly.

Your days were the same as mine, Rich (fellow '88 grad). I have the same recollection. One of my favorite bookstore shirts from that era was "DUKE...it even sounds cool". The fact is that it does connote coolness/eliteness, and some (perhaps most) people wear it for that reason alone.


Was there a particular year when the color became lighter or was that a gradual migration?

My theory is that when black started infiltrating the uniform scheme, it became necessary to shift the blue to something lighter to create a better contrast. To remain consistent with the mostly black unis, the full blue unis needed to be of the same lighter hue. I can definitely remember the football team sporting almost true navy jerseys in the 80s. Even today's football devils wear a color that seems closer to navy than the one used for bball, lax, etc.

I feel that all this color diversity defeats the notion that there's a "Duke Blue" and would like to see the Athletic Dept. unify the blue across all teams. Or, are my eyes fooling me and they are all the same Pantone whatever?

InaudibleWords
02-11-2009, 03:01 PM
Inaudible, would you say the shoes were the color of the font that a lot of us use for Duke Blue??? (see Rich's signature)

Sidenote: Both the men & women's fencing teams beat UNC this weekend to give Duke another point in the Carlyle Cup!

Fencer, Rich's signature seems to be darker... they really were electric. From the chart, Rich is more Bright Blue and the shoes seemed to be a slight shade darker than Azure Blue.

http://www.coloredfilms.com/images/Printable%20Film%20Color%20Chart%202.jpg

The Gordog
02-11-2009, 05:13 PM
After 20 years (I graduated in 1988), I finally got back to Cameron last week to see the Miami game. It definitely lived up to my memories and expectations. The crowd was as boisterous as I remember and a buddy of mine, who I invited but didn't go to Duke, was totally impressed by the crowd, how loud it got, and, most significantly, how the crowd kept cheering and pushing the team even when we were down by 16 in the second half. I was proud and he was so happy to be a part of it he bought a CAMERON CRAZIE t-shirt after the game.

While walking the campus before the game, he also couldn't believe how many people wore Duke hats, t-shirts, sweatshirts and other apparel. He joked, "Do you have a uniform code here?" I remember from my days as an undergrad how students wore their Duke garb proudly and was happy to see that was still the case. Maybe it's like that at other schools, but I don't think to the same extent.

Now to my question which, to some degree, is supported by the photo on the DBR website today. In the 1980's I seem to recall that the primary color for apparel and other merchandise was in the navy family. The photo on the website shows a uniform in Duke blue that is darker than what the players where today. I recall the color of the uniforms being not quite navy in the 80's, but definitely darker than the royal blue color it is today. Looking at the shirts worn by the students, as well as a trip to the school store, the school's color now seems to be more of a royal blue. I never really noticed this from watching on tv, but it was quite apparent when I was there in person.

Was the school's color always royal blue, but the store just sold more navy because it was more popular at the time? Or was the school's color a darker blue than the royal it is today and migrated to royal blue? Was this a gradual shift? And what about the uniforms? Was there a particular year when the color became lighter or was that a gradual migration?

I would be interested if anyone has any thoughts or insights about this.

According to the archives: "In a computer color palette Duke Blue is hex 00,00,9C; RGB 0,0,156; Hue=160 Saturation =240 Brightness=73."

It looks like this:656

The numbers on our uniforms look more like pantone 285 or 300 these days. Not Duke Blue for sure, but hey if it looks good on Tee Vee :rolleyes: